Why no lights?

     I ride quite a bit at night, mainly on the south side (Pilsen, Bridgeport, McKinley Park, Brighton Park).  Riding and driving, I note that the vast majority of bikers I see (sometimes just barely) at night have no front headlight.  Many don't even have a rear reflector, much less a light or blinkie.  For example, look at the video for the Monday Night Ride on this website.  Many if not most of the riders, who I am sure are great people, have no form of illumination whatsoever.  I have a few questions for you ninjas:

     1.  Why?  Is it so hard to purchase some small light, per the Chicago ordinance, so that people can see and avoid you?  There are plenty of inexpensive lights that will do the job.  Is this some kind of aesthetic issue, an attempt at rebelliousness, or just plain laziness?;

     2.  Do you understand the danger that you place yourselves and others in?;  

     3.  Do you understand that bikers like you make people resent bikers in general, thus hurting the cause of us all?  Or is it your actual purpose to antagonize?;

     4.  Is this more of a south side problem, or is it relatively uniform throughout the city?  I do know from experience that Wicker Park isn't any better than where I live.;  

     5.  Do you drive cars without headlights?  Do you think that would be OK?

      When I see photos of an accident scene involving a biker who was hit at night, I always try to discern if they had lights.  From what I can tell, almost always did not. 

     I know I sound crotchety here, but I just don't understand the point of risking death or serious injury because of refusal to do something as simple as make yourself visible to other people on the roadway.  

     And yes, my own bike is almost as illuminated as Snoopy's doghouse in the Charlie Brown Christmas special.  

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on August 20, 2014 at 3:38am

Ah, context makes a big difference in understanding where you're coming from.

h' 1.0 said:

Forgot-- my perception is that attention-getting front lights may make you more of a target for street people in questionable areas.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on August 20, 2014 at 5:03am

Mine is an odd mix. Night riding is mostly in/near downtown or in/near my neighborhood - mostly quiet residential streets with little or no traffic where some drivers are very aware of cyclists and some are clueless. Daytime riding could be almost anywhere in the city on all kinds of streets, some with viaducts where I appreciate having lights for visibility.

h' 1.0 said:

I think that's more true of this type of discussion than one might expect. Maybe as important as knowing whether someone has a one or 12 mile sommute when talking about dressing for winter commuting.

Permalink Reply by Fai Mok on August 20, 2014 at 5:15am

I would like to add wearing cycling apparels with reflective material(shirt, shorts, shoes, bike gloves, etc) help greatly.  I have seen some people use reflective tape on their bike if they don't have reflectors.

Permalink Reply by Fai Mok on August 20, 2014 at 5:35am

I'm sure Darwinism will eventually weed these people and keep them from reproducing offsprings with the same mentality.
 
Serge Lubomudrov said:

I have started the discussion about lights about a year or so ago, with almost the same set of questions. I can't explain this phenomenon, except by a general and, though not exclusively, very American trait of individualism: I do what I like and if you don't like it, go fuck yourself. Nothing can change it, neither law (which is not being enforced, anyway), nor high probability of injury or even death.

Permalink Reply by Walter Dworak on August 20, 2014 at 10:13am

What are you talking about, they have flashing rears integrated into the triangle?
https://www.divvybikes.com/faq


h' 1.0 said:

And on that note-- the Divvy only has a flashing front light.  Would most here consider them unsafe for night usage because of that?

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on August 20, 2014 at 10:17am

The rear lights on a Divvy are barely visible in total darkness at 200 feet, let alone in a light-saturated area.  Then they're neigh-invisible until you're about fifty feet away.  Far too short a distance for an overtaking car.

Permalink Reply by Walter Dworak on August 20, 2014 at 10:25am

Personally I haven't had a problem seeing them, but they also seem to vary it how bright they are. Still very different from not existing at all.

Although I do wonder why I see so many people without a front light, but have a rear blinker? Considering every close call due to poor visibility I've ever had has been coming up to a dark intersection and a car not seeing me coming, because I didn't have my front light for whatever reason, I wonder why people are so afraid of the cars behind them when the mandated rear reflector is perfectly visible unless the driver is being unsafe at night.

Tricolor said:

The rear lights on a Divvy are barely visible in total darkness at 200 feet, let alone in a light-saturated area.  Then they're neigh-invisible until you're about fifty feet away.  Far too short a distance for an overtaking car.

Permalink Reply by Not too hip on August 20, 2014 at 5:14pm

Neither mine plus I saw a lot of loop riders last night without lights.

Permalink Reply by Sydney Barton on August 21, 2014 at 5:25am

So important I want to beat it into everyone's head. Without a headlight, bicyclists are invisible at night to the cars in front of them. There is too much visual competition from car headlights, streetlights and random reflections for a rider to bee seen.  

Jim Reho said:

I have to say, in over 33 years of riding the streets of Chicago, I've never had a car stop suddenly or unexpectedly because my bike had a light.  I have never had any adverse response from a car in front of me because I have a light.  As a driver during that entire same period, I have had no problem whatsoever seeing a bike with a light in back of me, and I appreciate knowing that he or she is there.  A dimmed rear view mirror, or side view mirror for that matter, cuts down on glare from others' lights, but by no means renders them invisible.  Not at all.  Also as a driver, a light makes it a lot easier for me to see bikes approaching from the opposite direction, insuring that I don't make a tragic left turn.  That alone makes front lights beneficial. Car headlights are intentionally oriented so that they don't shed much light into oncoming traffic lanes, so as not to impair the vision of drivers in them.  When you ride your bike at night and have no front headlight, it makes it much harder for me to see you when I'm turning left, or even when I'm turning right through a bike lane you may be in.  How am I supposed to see you in back of me and to my right when you aren't illuminated?  No biker has a gift of prophecy so great that they can foretell when a driver who can't see them might suddenly turn.  I see no sense in taking those risks when an inexpensive headlamp greatly alleviates them.            
h' 1.0 said:

Stopping suddenly/unexpectedly, trying to negotiate with you somehow when you don't have a prayer of being able to see them gesturing or waving--- would rather cars in front of me just went about their business and let me work around them.  It's not any harder to figure out what they're about to do at night than it is in the daytime. I disagree strongly with any notion that having lights that are easily visible from behind is not important.
On city streets, a white front light is only useful at night to satisfy the letter of the law and to keep one from losing legal standing in the event of a crash IMO.
Jim Reho said:

More unpredictably how?    

h' 1.0 said:

I find drivers behave much more unpredictably when they see a cyclist's light behind them at night.


 
Tricolor said:

A light that can be seen by cars is expensive.  When you ride in the dark without lights you can still see pretty well, so it's easy to assume everyone else sees, too.  In my experience rear reflectors are fine since a car will light them up, but someone riding behind a car needs a very strong light to be noticed in a dimming mirror.  Add in the usual bad habits with passing on the right and the dark is very dangerous.

Permalink Reply by Fai Mok on August 21, 2014 at 5:53am

Sydney, it's great point you brought up about lighting competition from a driver's perspective.  I was biking last night(5pm - 8:30pm).  As soon as the sun started to set, I turned on my Cateye Nano Shot light(about 2000 candle watts) on stroke mode.  I switched to low beam when it is dusk and realized that's not bright enough since the pedestrians walking in front of me on the trail didn't react.  I had to yelled out 'coming through' before they realized I'm coming up behind them.  The bright LED 2000 candle watt low beam mode proved your point.  I will be biking with high beam from now on. 

Permalink Reply by Kevin Mulcky on August 21, 2014 at 6:14am

Please don't use your headlight in "stroke mode" on shared use paths. 

Permalink Reply by Renee Patten on August 21, 2014 at 12:41pm

1. The break, get lost, and stolen fairly regularly. My last $30 set lasted about 3 months before they stopped working. It's been a few weeks and I have not gotten around to getting a new set. Living paycheck to paycheck, lights are not always a priority. I would say I have gone through at least 10 sets of lights over the past 4 years. To pick one of your options, laziness. 

2. Yes

3. Everyone sucks

4. Don't know

5. A bike is not a car

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